Global Business Plan

Global Business Plan

  Poverty denies South African children their rights to basic education, primary health care, adequate nutrition and safe water and sanitation.  In South Africa, 55 percent of children belong to households living under the ultra-poverty line of R800 or less a month. This amounts to 10 million children.  The lack of piped water in the dwelling or yard and lack of access to a flush or chemical toilet affects mainly African children.  In South Africa, malnutrition is characterized by both under and over-nutrition, a direct reflection of the broader disparities in society. The South African National Food Consumption Survey 11 in 1999 found relatively high levels of malnutrition in children aged one to six years. Also,  21.6 percent of children between the ages of one and six were stunted, 12 or chronically malnourished, with younger children and those living on farms most affected.  One out of two children had an intake of less than half the recommended level of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, riboflavin, niacin, Vitamin B6, folate, calcium, iron and zinc.  I chose South Africa for this project.  I want to have a product that is able to give people the nutrients that they need while also giving them clean water.  

South Africa has the largest economy in Africa.  South Africa is a middle-income, emerging market.  It has an abundant supply of natural resources; well-developed financial, legal, communications, energy, and transport sectors and a stock exchange that is the 16th largest in the world. Even though the country's modern infrastructure supports a relatively efficient distribution of goods to major urban centers throughout the region, unstable electricity supplies retard growth. The global financial crisis reduced commodity prices and world demand. GDP fell nearly 2% in 2009 but has recovered since then, albeit slowly with 2014 growth projected at about 2%. Unemployment, poverty, and inequality are among the highest in the world and remain a challenge. Official unemployment is at nearly 25% of the work force, and runs significantly higher among black youth. Eskom, the state-run power company, has built two new power stations and installed new power demand management programs to improve power grid reliability. Construction delays at two additional plants, however, mean South Africa is operating on a razor thin margin; economists judge that growth cannot exceed 3% until those plants come on line. South Africa's economic policy has focused on controlling inflation, however, the country has had significant budget deficits that restrict its ability to deal with pressing economic problems. The current government faces growing pressure from special interest groups to use state-owned enterprises to deliver basic services to low-income areas and to increase job growth.